Review: "Six Frigates," Ian W. Toll

 

By Paul Carrier 

The U.S. Navy traces its birth to 1775, when the Second Continental Congress created the Continental Navy. But as Ian W. Toll writes in Six Frigates, his impressive 2006 history of the Navy’s founding, the Continental Navy was, with few exceptions, “a wasteful and humiliating fiasco.”

The 13 frigates built by order of the Continental Congress were plagued by construction, manning and provisioning delays, and often had to return to port for repairs. Seven of the 13 were captured by the Royal Navy, and four were destroyed to keep them out of British hands.

A more productive era dawned, in fits and starts, after the Revolution, when it came time to subdue the Barbary States, fight the so-called Quasi War with France, and wage the War of 1812 against Britain.

The Navy came into its own with the construction of the six frigates of Toll’s title: United States (launched in 1797), President (1800), Congress (1799), Constitution (1797), Constellation (1797) and Chesapeake (1799). Three of those frigates, in particular, were the most powerful ships of their class in the world.

Toll masterfully details the Navy’s early years from every angle, including intense political squabbling over the purpose and size of the Navy; the innovative design and strength of the American frigates; the superstitions of seamen; rivalries among ambitious frigate captains; and, of course, drama on the high seas. Excerpts from letters and diaries personalize a world that mixed bravery, sacrifice and glory with loss, heartbreak and tragedy.